Acceleration= Force OVER Mass

Design Considerations for Water-Bottle Rockets

The next few pages are provided to help in the design of your water-bottle rocket. Read
through this packet and answer the questions on the last page before beginning the design of your
experimental rockets.

Newton’s First Law: Objects at rest will stay at rest, or objects in motion will stay in
motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

When the rocket is sitting on the launcher, the forces are balanced because the surface of
the launcher pushes the rocket up while gravity pulls it down. When we pressurize the fluid
inside the rocket and release the locking clamps the forces become unbalanced. A small opening
in the bottom of the rocket will allow fluid to escape in one direction and in doing so provides
thrust (force) in the opposite direction allowing the rocket to propel skyward. This force
continues until the pressure forces the last of the fluid to leave the rocket.

Newton’s Second Law: The acceleration of an object is directly related to the force exerted
on the object and oppositely related to the mass of that object.

For example: If you use the same amount of force, you can throw a baseball faster that a
basketball because the baseball has less mass.

To get your water bottle rockets to fly to great heights you will need to:

o Minimize the rocket’s mass (weight) while maximizing the amount of force.
o Be careful when minimizing the rocket’s weight. If the rocket is too light it will lose stability
as soon as the water is expelled and turn end over end.
o The greater the mass of the fluid expelled from the rocket, and the faster the fluid can be
expelled from the rocket, the greater the thrust (force) of the rocket.
o Increasing the pressure inside the bottle rocket produces greater thrust. This is because a
greater mass of air inside the bottle escapes with a higher acceleration.

1
Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction.

Like a balloon full of air, the bottle rocket is pressurized. When the locking clamp is
released, fluid escapes the bottle providing an action force that is accompanied by an equal and
opposite reaction force which results in the movement of the rocket in the opposite direction.

o Essentially, the faster the fluid is ejected, and the more mass that is ejected, the greater
the reaction force on the rocket.

Stability - Center of Mass and Center of Pressure:

When we launched the 2-liter bottle it quickly lost stability and tumbled end over end as
soon as the water was expelled. In order for your rocket to reach heights of 200-300 feet, the
rocket must be aerodynamically stable during flight. To increase the stability of the rocket there
are two principles you need to understand: Center of Mass (CM), and Center of Pressure
(CP).

2
Determining the Center of Mass (CM)
The CM of the rocket is easy to find: it is the point at which the rocket balances. If you
were to tie a string around the rocket at its CM, it would balance from the string horizontally.

Determining the Center of Pressure

The CP is more difficult to determine. The CP exists only when air is flowing past the
moving rocket. The CP is defined as the point along the rocket where, if you were to attach a
pivot and then hold the rocket crossways into the wind by that pivot, the wind forces on either
side of the CP are equal.

This principle is similar to that of a

weather vane. When wind blows on a
weathervane the arrow points into the
wind because the tail of the weathervane
has a surface area much greater than
the arrowhead. The flowing air imparts
a greater pressure on the tail and therefore
the tail is pushed away.

On a rocket the purpose of the fins is to add surface area to the rear of the rocket which
helps keep the nose of the rocket pointed into the wind. If the fins on a rocket were placed at the
front of the rocket, the nose of the rocket would swap positions with the tail a few feet into the
flight which would be disastrous!

One method of approximating the CP of a rocket is to make a cardboard cutout shaped

like the silhouette of the rocket, and then find the cutout's balance point. This balance point
provides an approximation of the CP of the rocket.

3
Relationship of CM to CP

In order for a rocket to fly in a stable fashion the center of mass (CM) of the rocket must be
forward of the center of pressure (CP) (See the figure below).

It is important that the CP is located toward the tail of the rocket and the CM is located
toward the nose. In order to achieve this the following is recommended:

o Adding fins to a rocket increases the surface area of the tail section. The wind forces will
thus increase in the tail section which in turn will move the CP toward the fins. In fact,
that is the main function of fins. The larger the fins, the further back the CP will be.

o Adding weight to the nose cone section will help move the CM toward the nose of the
rocket. Experiment with your rocket by adding amounts of modeling clay to the
nosecone section of the rocket and then launching it to check stability and height. Be
careful not to add too much weight as this will slow down the rocket.

o Typically, the longer the rocket, the more stable the rocket’s flight will be. However, the
longer the rocket, the heavier the rocket will be. This means that you need to increase the
thrust to compensate for the extra weight.

o Essentially, you need to minimize the rockets weight without compromising stability.

4
Size of Nozzle:

Remember that the thrust of the rocket will end when the last of the fluid leaves the
nozzle of the bottle. You can make the nozzle smaller by closing it off with a rubber stopper or
similar device. Arguments for the size of nozzle are given below:

o A wide-open nozzle allows for a lot of thrust but for a very short period of time.
o Reduced nozzles don't give as much thrust but they burn longer. Because of this low
thrust (i.e., slow launch speeds) you need to have a rocket that is stable at slower speeds.
o Launches with a reduced nozzle are slower, have a less explosive launch, are safer in the
event of a tip over, and look cool.
o A wide-open nozzle keeps launches fast and stable

Fill Ratio of Water in Rocket

When water is added to the rockets, the effect of mass is demonstrated. Before air can
leave the water rocket, the water has to be first be expelled. Because water has a much greater
mass than air, it contributes to a much greater thrust (Newton’s 2nd Law). A rocket filled
with water will fly much farther than a rocket filled only with air. By varying the amount of
water and air in the rocket and graphing how high the rockets travel, you can see that the thrust
of the rocket is dependent on the mass being expelled and the speed of expulsion.
The best way to determine the fill ratio is to launch 3-4 test flights using differing
amounts of fluid and graph the height of rocket flight for each.

5
Pressure of Fluid:

By using the bicycle pump to pressurize the air inside the rocket, we can increase the
launch pressure of the fluid in the rocket which will then increase the thrust available to the
rocket for lift off. The rocket launchers you will use for this activiity have been regulated to a
maximum launch pressure of 100 psi. Typically, you will want to use a pressure close to 100
psi. However, you need to remember that at high pressures there may be a tradeoff in rocket
stability and rocket design considerations related to center of mass and center of pressure might
need to be adjusted.

Air Drag:

As a rocket moves through the air, friction between the rocket surface and the air (air
drag) will slow it down. At the high velocities these rockets achieve, air drag becomes a very
significant force. To reduce air drag, the rocket should be designed so that air passing over the
surfaces of the rocket flows in smooth lines (streamlining) thus reducing drag to a minimum.

Below are examples of nose cone designs for the rocket and their relationship to Air Drag. For
more information on nose cones see page 11.

Some general rules of design to decrease air drag include:

o The fins should be thin and tapered.

o Swept back fins create less drag than straight fins and rounded corners on a fin create less
drag than sharp corners

Every surface on the rocket should be as smooth as possible.

o The nose cone should be a reasonable shape (see the nose cone designs above).

6
Fins:

Without fins, your rocket will not fly straight. Typically, water bottle rockets have three or four
fins attached at the neck of the bottle. Remember the larger the fins and the further back
they are placed on the rocket, the further back the center of pressure (CP) will be thus
increasing the stability of rocket flight.

There are many fin variations possible. You will need some fine tuning to get the design
right. Below are some fin design possibilities: use these or come up with your own design.

*** Spiral flight helps stabilize the rocket the same way a football is stabilized by spinning in
flight. However, this spinning motion does tend to use up some of the energy needed for
forward motion. To make a rocket spin, angle the fins slightly when attaching the fins to
the rocket or bend the tips of the fins in a pinwheel fashion.
Nose Cone:
The nose cone serves several purposes for the water bottle rocket. These include:
o The nose cone helps reduce air drag by streamlining the air as it flows past the surface of
the rocket.
o Adding weight to the nose cone helps move the center of mass (CM) toward the nose of
7
 the rocket increasing the stability of the rocket.
o The nose cone is often used to hold a payload such as a parachute.

Several popular nose cone shapes are shown below

How to construct a paper nosecone:

Designs to consider to help keep your rocket from being destroyed

o When making the rocket, the section of the rocket which is to be pressurized should not
be cut in any manner or the rocket will not hold pressure.

Bounce Method - Add a Nerf ball, tennis ball, or other device to the nose of the rocket so that it
bounces upon impact.

8
Parachute method - A parachute can be added to the nosecone of the rocket. The tricky part is
getting the parachute to release on the way down rather than the way up. One method is to add a
paper towel tube to the rocket, place a parachute inside the tube, and then attach the parachute to
a tennis ball and then place the ball on the top of the tube. When the rocket reaches the end of
it’s flight and turns to tumble to earth the ball falls off and deploys the parachute.

Calculating the Height of a Water Rocket:

The are three ways to calculate
in this class. The first method would
However, in order to use this method
travel straight in the air (90 to the
isn’t always the case. The second
method and the third method would be
Sines.
the height of the water bottle rockets
be to use right angle trigonometry.
the rockets would need to always
earth) and as you will soon learn, this
method is known as the average angle
to use trigonometry and the Law of

Since the average angle method is the easiest and most commonly used, it
will be the method we will use for this activity.

Average Angle Method

9
 This method makes an approximation of rocket height rather than an exact calculation.
However, considering human error and the crude measuring instruments used in this activity, this
method is fairly accurate in calculating rocket height.

Step #1
Measure two locations 150 feet on either side of and in a direct line with the launch pad. Place a
person at each of these locations with an altitude gun (see the figure below).

Step #2
Assume that your team has launched a rocket and Person A measures 45 and Person B
measures 30 (See figure above).

Step #3

Use the average angle formula to calculate the height of the rocket.
Average Angle formula: a = b(tan A)

a= height of rocket flight

b= distance from
the launch pad
(150 feet)
A = the average
of the two angles
(Given Angle 1 =
45 , and Angle 2
= 30 , A=
37.5 )

ï Therefore,
using the
example on the preceding page, if one person measured 45 and the other person
measured 30 then the average angle (A) would be 37.5 .
ï Next, using the formula a = 150 (tan 37.5), the height of this rocket flight would be 115
feet (a = 115 ft).
10
Calculation Helps:

ï Make sure your calculator is in degrees mode and not in radians mode.

ï On most calculators you will need to

ï 1) enter in the average angle (in this case 37.5),
ï 2) hit the tangent button, and then
ï 3) multiply this value by 150.

11
 Water Rocket Worksheet
Name:

You and a partner are to complete this worksheet together and hand it into the teacher.
When you are finished, the teacher will give you materials so you can start designing and
building your experimental rocket.

1. (Newton’s 1st law - Page #1) How long does the thrust last when a rocket is launched?

2. (Newton’s 2nd Law - Page #2) If you want your rocket to accelerate faster you need to:
(Choose one of the following statements)
Decrease the force and increase the mass of the rocket.
Decrease the force and decrease the mass of the rocket.
Increase the force and decrease the mass of the rocket.
Increase the force and increase the mass of the rocket.

3. Describe how can you determine where the center of mass (CM) is on your rocket?(Page
#4)

4. Describe how can you determine the center of pressure (CP) for your rocket? (Page #5)

5. If you want your rocket to have stable flight which of the following is true (Page #6)?
(Choose one)
The center of mass (CM) and the center of pressure (CP) should be at the same point on the rocket.
The center of mass (CM) should be towards the tail of the rocket and the
center of pressure (CP) should towards the nose of the rocket.
The center of mass (CM) should be towards the nose of the rocket and the
center of pressure (CP) should towards the tail of the rocket.

6. What modification can you make to your rocket to change the position of the center of
mass (CM)(Page #6)?

7. What modification can you make to your rocket to change the position of the center of
pressure (CP)(Page #6)?

8. True or False: A longer rocket is typically more stable in flight than a short rocket?
(Page #6)

9. Why does a rocket with water fly higher than a rocket with no water? (p. 8)

12
10. What is air drag? (Page #9)
11. List three things you can do to your rocket to decrease the air drag. (Page #9)
1.
2.
3.

12. What is the purpose of fins on a rocket? (Page #10)

13. List two purposes of a nose cone on a rocket? (Page #11)

1)
2)

14. (Pages #13-14)When you launch your rocket, two persons from your group will use
altimeter guns to measure the angle of the rocket flight and thus determine the flight
height. If these persons measured angles of 55 and 49 respectively, use the average
angle formula to determine the height of the rocket flight. Assume that each of the
persons are 150 feet from the launch site.
Formula: Height = 150 (Tan A) Note: A= average of the two angles

Height of rocket flight = Ft

15. If you launched a second rocket and these persons measured angles of 55 and 61
respectively, what is the height of the rocket flight?
Height = Ft

13